Unofficial news and tips about Google

February 6, 2008

Add Data to Google Spreadsheets Using Forms

Google Spreadsheets has a new feature that lets you create a form to accept data. When you go to the Share tab, there's a new option to "invite people to fill out a form". The form is very simple and can be customized by changing the order of entries, their labels and the type of answers. It's also a nice way to get feedback people who wouldn't normally collaborate on a spreadsheet.

This reminds me of a service from back in the bubble days called Zaplet. You could create forms and then send them via email. The results would live in your original email and refresh at regular intervals.

This works a bit differently but it is very similar and a welcome addition to Google Docs functionality.

Google should add the "Forms" button in Google Spreadsheet, otherwise it is tough to locate. Another great new feature from Google. They seem to introduce one new feature a day, when did Microsoft did that (Never) and that too for free.

For those asking about embedding, I used an iframe and the link provided by Google (and also mentioned in the post). The iframe needed some tweaking because IE and Opera required a different width than Firefox (the textareas were bigger).

very very cool feature...now, for some of us (like me..) who HAVE a blog, but HAVENTgot a single idea of what an iframe is, could you please help us with it? I have created a form, and I want to embed it in my blog! (blogger)

One more question...I am Greek, and my blog is visited 100% by Greek people, as I write posts in Greek. While I CAN create the form, filling all the information in Greek, when I embedd it on my blog, all I get is ??????????????? ??????? ???????? ....why does it do this? how can I fix this??

I don't think your rsvp is going to work because your spreadsheet will only show the time that someone responded - not their email so you have no way to know who responded... please tell me how you solved it, if you solved this problem, because I'm stuck!!

I anticipated this long back :) Do you think GSQL will be coming up soon? The mere fact of forms and spreadsheets reminds me of databases and other operations... Who knows one day, Google could come out with its own SQL backend-frontend combo...

@Susane: I am able to accept RSVPs and get email addresses because one of the fields in my form asks for the email address. Just add a text field and call it "email address" and the people filling out the form will enter their address there.

Speaking of the iframe, my remaining problem is that the blog page where the RSVP form is located is fairly narrow (~ 380 pixels across). The form for accepting long text blocks (like the one at the top of this page) is 500 pixels across. So the problem is that I can't see the right edge of my text entry box.

Do you know how I can force that large text box to resize to fit inside of the iframe? Or is there another way to do this?

The only thing I thought of is to turn on the scroll bars. It doesn't look great but it does let you see the whole box.

Has anyone else has problem with long forms? I've got one with 30 questions and it keeps screwing up the final 10. I keep fixing it and it keeps scrapping half of them and doubling the other ones. Weird...and annoying.

I am wondering if I am doing this wrong or if I am just one of the first to find a bug. I find that the form turns out perfectly the first time I create it. When I go back and edit it and change the order of questions or add questions then the whole form gets jumbled!

Is there any way to prevent the same individual from replying multiple times? I would like to use the forms feature for voting and evaluations, but the results could be skewed if the same person can post information to the spreadsheet multiple times. Thanks for your help.

As with so many things from Google, this is a really cool new feature that doesn't work properly for Google Apps users. Publishing a form from Google Apps forces people to log in to that Apps domain -- before even seeing the form. Which makes it pretty useless for a general-purpose Website...

Is there a way to change the Submit button so that it displays different text? I am trying to use Google form for RSVP and would like the Submit button to read "RSVP". Any ideas? Pls e-mail me at aat0995@yahoo.com

I'd like some help with this - I'm having the same problem as CJ above: I'm sending out a questionnaire to users and they're just getting a 'log in to google account' screen.

The intro page (http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2008/02/stop-sharing-spreadsheets-start.html) says: "They won't need to sign in, and they can respond directly from the email message or from an automatically generated web page"

I want to use forms to create online worksheets for students e.g. questions + responses. The trouble is that the forms functionality seems very limited with respect to what I can put in the questions e.g. hyperlinks, images etc. I don't think its currently possible to use HTML, or have I missed something?

How can we post a live "analysis" (with the charts, etc from the forms analysis feature) somewhere? As in, on a Google Site? I can only see how to post the form, or the spreadsheet layout of the results, but not make the pie charts, etc. available for all to see on a webpage.

i am using it currently to get some response for my project. theres a prob though...the database isnt gettin updated properly..i hav had to ask people to re submit at times which is a problem for them and me too! any help?

Did anyone tried to submit spreadsheet form withing from some application? I would like ruby on rails app to be able to update spreadsheet. I am sending data to https://spreadsheets.google.com/formResponse?formkey=SOMEKEY using net/http lib, but spreadsheet is not updated.

is there an app to update a spreadsheet? I have created a directory and would like to enable members to update their profiles through a form. It would be ideal if I could send each member a unique url that would allow them to update just their profile.